Eeeeesports. Bandai Namco are back to announce the new year of competitive Tekken 7 with the Tekken World Tour. The 2018 season of the Tekken World Tour officially kicks off this month with the first event; Final Round 18 on March 16-18 being a Master level event for competitors looking for a strong start to the new season. The big changes to the tour format for this year is the unified leaderboards which replace the region locked leaderboards from last year, the location of grand finals event which is now set to take place in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and 20 top placers from the leaderboards qualifying for the TWT Grand Finals (up from the previous 16). For more details on the Tekken World Tour for 2018, you can check out their recently revamped web page for the 2018 tour:

We’re excited to announce that the TEKKEN World Tour will return for another year. The 2017 Tour featured incredible action from beginning to end. We saw the dominance of JDCR and SAINT, the return of JimmyJTran, the rise of SuperAkouma and Noroma, and the crowning of a new world champion in Qudans.

We are proud of what we did in last year, but we want to make the 2018 TEKKEN World Tour even better. We’ve made a few changes to the Tour’s structure in the hopes of both giving players more chances to compete at Tour events and making the Tour simpler to follow for fans.

Here’s an overview of what to expect on the 2018 TEKKEN World Tour:

A SIMPLER LEADERBOARD AND POINT STRUCTURE

Last year’s TEKKEN World Tour was effectively three tours rolled into one. Events were divided into three regions, and while players could enter events in any of the three regions, they could only earn points in their home region. This led to situations at many events where the biggest chunks of points went unawarded.

That won’t be the case this year. The 2018 TEKKEN World Tour will feature one global leaderboard. Players can earn points at every single Tour event in the world. If a European player performs well at an event in the Americas or in the Asia/Pacific region, they will be rewarded for it on the leaderboard.

The point structure is also changing for 2018. Events will be divided into just two categories: Challenger events and Master events. Players will earn points for finishing in the Top 16 of a Challenger event or the Top 32 of a Master event.

Additionally, every single offline event on this year’s Tour will receive a pot bonus. The top four finishers at each Challenger even will share an additional $1,000, and players who finish among the top four at a Master event will share a $5,000 pot bonus.

You can see a full breakdown of the points and prizing awarded at this year’s events below:

PLACEMENT

TOURNAMENT CATEGORY

Master

Prizing

Challenger

Prizing (Offline only)

1st

300

$2,500

150

$500

2nd

220

$1,250

100

$250

3rd

150

$750

70

$150

4th

100

$500

45

$100

5th

70

—

25

—

7th

45

—

10

—

9th

25

—

5

—

13th

10

—

1

—

17th

5

—

—

—

25th

1

—

—

—

A FULL-LENGTH SEASON WITH FEWER OVERLAPPING EVENTS

This year’s TEKKEN World Tour will feature plenty of action. The Tour will include approximately 40 events held across 24 countries on five continents. The events will include a mix of both offline and online tournaments, so just about anyone will have an opportunity to compete.

The 2018 Tour begins on March 16-18atFinal Round 2018 in Atlanta, GA. Final Round has a long and storied history within the TEKKEN scene, with a list of former champions including JDCR, Anakin, Saint, and more. We can’t think of a better event to serve as the kick-off for the 2018 season,

The earlier start to this year’s Tour means that many events that take place earlier in the calendar year can now be included. Final Round, NorCal Regionals, Kuwait Battle Royale, Battle Arena Melbourne, and Combo Breaker are just some of the great early-season events that will take part in this year’s tour.

You can also expect far fewer events to overlap this year. Although tournament dates are subject to change, there is currently just one weekend where multiple TEKKEN World Tour events are scheduled to take place.

You can find the full list of offline events below. Locations and dates are subject to change:

Date

Event

Location

Category

3/16-18

Final Round

Georgia, USA

Master

3/24-25

Thaiger Uppercut

Bangkok, Thailand

Challenger

3/30-4/1

Norcal Regionals

California, USA

Challenger

4/7-8

BEast Arena: Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Challenger

4/12-14

Kuwait Battle Royale

Mishref, Kuwait

Challenger

4/28-29

Korea Masters

Seoul, Korea

Master

5/4-6

Texas Showdown

Texas, USA

Challenger

5/11-13

The Colosseum

Rome, Italy

Challenger

5/18-20

Battle Arena Melbourne

Melbourne, Australia

Master

5/25-27

COMBO BREAKER

Illinois, USA

Master

6/9-10

Fighting Games Challenge

Lodz, Poland

Master

6/16-17

TW Fighter

Taipei, Taiwan

Challenger

6/23-24

ADFT IX

Barcelona, Spain

Challenger

6/28-7/1

CEO

Florida, USA

Master

7/7-8

Abuget Cup

Jakarta, Indonesia

Challenger

7/14-15

FV x SEA Major

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Challenger

7/21-22

VS Fighting

Birmingham, UK

Master

7/28-29

Headstomper

Copenhagen, Denmark

Challenger

8/11-12

Moscow Fighting Arena

Moscow, Russia

Challenger

8/18-19

Tokyo Masters

Tokyo, Japan

Master

8/25-26

Celtic Throwdown

Dublin, Ireland

Challenger

8/31-9/2

Summer Jam

Pennsylvania, USA

Master

9/7-9

The MIXUP

Lyon, France

Master

9/14-16

SCR

California, USA

Challenger

9/15-16

Rev Major

Manilla, Philippines

Challenger

10/6

TXT

TBA, Colombia

Master

10/13-14

South East Asia Major

Singapore

Master

10/20-21

Berlin TEKKEN Clash

Berlin, Germany

Challenger

10/26-28

Canada Cup

Toronto, ON, Canada

Challenger

11/TBD

TWT Finals

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Finals

Dates and details for the Tour’s online events will come at a later date.

AN EXPANDED TEKKEN WORLD TOUR FINALS

If you enjoyed last year’s TEKKEN World Tour Finals, you’ll have even more action to love at the end of this season. The 2018 TEKKEN World Tour Finals will expand to a field of 20 players. It will be held on a to-be-determined weekend in November in Amsterdam, Netherlands. And yes, we said weekend, as this year’s Finals will be held over the course of two days.

Day 1 will consist of a last chance qualifier tournament that will be open to all players. The winner of that tournament will join the top 19 points earners on the TEKKEN World Tour leaderboard in Day 2’s Finals field. Those finalists will compete for a share of the $25,000 prize pool and the title of TEKKEN World Tour champion.

The Finals format will be similar to the one used last year, but with a twist. The top four players from the TEKKEN World Tour leaderboard will be divided into four separate groups, but exactly which top seed will be in which group will be hidden. The remaining players will, in order of their leaderboard placement, choose which group they wish to compete in. Once that’s done, the top seeds’ will be revealed.

Just like last year, all of the players in a group will square off against each other in a round robin format. The top two finishers in each group will advance to the Top 8, with the player who wins the group advancing into the winners’ bracket and the runner-up advancing into the losers’ bracket. From there it’s a standard Top 8 finals, with the last player standing taking home the title of TEKKEN World Tour champion.

The road to Amsterdam begins in just a few weeks. Be sure to follow @TEKKEN on Twitter and to check our relaunched TEKKENWorldTour.com for updates.